Da Aosta a Champillon, per Rus, e ritorno

Route mostly on trails and dirt roads.

Departure at the IAR school in Aosta.

Ascend along the asphalt municipal road La Rochère towards the hill. At the intersection with Via delle Betulle continue uphill on asphalt. Take the second fork to the right continuing up a steep narrow asphalt road until it rejoins the abandoned road just before. Turn uphill to the right and then immediately to the left. Continue uphill (Bioula Region). The paved road breaks at garages where it continues as a narrow path to be followed to reach Pléod. Continue uphill to the right on path 3A, passing in front of the Alpini altar, in the direction of Vignole. Short stretch of flat asphalt road then, after passing, keeping to the right, an intersection, take the path to the left again until you reach a flat dirt road and follow it to the right. Shortly after the descent has begun take the steep uphill path to the left. Once you come out on the regional paved road, walk a few meters uphill and take the Ru Bourgeois trail to the right. Follow it to Entrebin where you turn left onto the municipal road. After a very short stretch, at the former Chapel, turn right entering the park. Go up it and exit onto the dirt road following it to the right. Reach Excenex and enter its hamlet at the fountain. Continue uphill along the stone-paved road that you will leave at a path to take to the left. Cross the paved municipal road a first time by continuing on a path then follow it to the right when you reach it for the second time. After a short distance take the path to the left that leads to the Les Chariots farmhouse and continue on the path past the farmhouse itself, coming out again on the asphalt road. Continue for about 300 meters on the same until you reach the obvious Ru Neuf trail to take to the right. Follow the Ru Neuf (trail 1 and via Francigena) passing through Reysod, then upstream of La Clusaz, then through Echevennoz, reaching, after a short stretch of asphalt, the obvious Pipeline Pumping Station. Here take the steep track to the left, which after a short while climbs downhill reaching the cemetery of Etroubles. Continue crossing in a westerly direction (view of Saint-Oyen) the large square and taking at its end the "percorso vita" (trail 6c - winter cross-country track) to the Saint-Oyen Sports Field. Here take the paved municipal road to the left and follow it for a stretch. At the first fork head right crossing the bridge over the Artanavaz stream. After a short uphill stretch still on asphalt road, take the path to the left and turn, after a short stretch, sharply left again on the flat path that runs alongside a Ru until you reach Barral. Here follow, staying on the orographic left of the stream, the dirt track (winter cross-country trail) in a westerly direction until you reach the bridge over the Torrent des Bosses (at a paved car lay-by), which you must cross. Continue in the opposite direction (eastward) on the paved municipal road and reach (in Bosses) the church of Saint-Léonard. Turn left into the hamlet passing, uphill, near a fountain and continue on the route marked VA (via alpina) that leads, after a short asphalt section, on a dirt road to Saint-Rhémy. Here take the regional road in the direction of the Col du Grand-Saint-Bernard only as far as the first hairpin bend where you abandon it to take a dirt road to the right. Continue on this (signposted TdC - Tour du Combin) uphill passing 6 hairpin bends until you meet, at about elevation 1825, the dirt road coming up from Eternon. Follow it downhill to the right for a stretch taking care to take, after a short while, a path to the left uphill that can be followed for a stretch by bike. It may in fact be necessary to descend from it and push it for a short while until you reach the flat section that leads to the Barasson pasture.

From here descend on a dirt road in a southeasterly direction to the first junction to take a left uphill. Continue on the uphill track (always TdC signs) passing above the Essanaz hut and continuing later, on the level, on the Ru Neuf of Eternon. You follow it almost until you reach the farm track that climbs to Menouvy, except taking a little earlier, a right-hand fork (again TdC signpost) that shortens, on a fun downhill path, the route, rejoining the aforementioned farm track. Follow it downhill to the first fork on the left that leads, past the bridge over the Torrent de Menouvy, to Ponteilles Désot. Here you descend and reach the Ru d'Allein (buried under a nice track), which you follow on the flat, until you reach the Comba pasture, located under the slopes of Mont Saron , just above the hamlet of Ville di Allein. You then begin to climb on the dirt road that leads from Ville to the Parc alpine pasture (altitude 2000), upon reaching which the great exertions end. In fact, one follows the flat track, under which the Ru de By flows, heading east toward the commune of Doues. After a while, the track descends and climbs back up toward a hydraulic work to be reached because from here to Champillon the Ru flows by sight near the fun trail to be followed. Reaching Plan Débat (elevation 2076) at Champillon (small lake and cross) the descent begins along trail 9 (which I lost for a stretch near the Vorbé farmhouse so that I had to walk a stretch of paved road). At the hamlet of Torrent, downhill, you intercept a track that you follow to the right. You cross the paved municipal road (leading to Orbaney) and continue on the track, meeting the large upstream pulley of the former Doues ski lift. The slope begins to descend and after a while you must intercept on the right the detour that leads, still on the slope, to Daillon di Allein. From here, on asphalt road you reach the nearby Chanté, past them, after going downhill about fifty meters, you take a path to the left. The same is interrupted by the municipal road but resumes after turning left on the same and then right. You then reach the municipal road again, which you follow downhill to the main town of Allein (bar/restaurant on the square). Continue on asphalt for about 20 meters and take a path to the left that, at the next intersection with the regional road, continues standing to the right, reaching Chez-Norat. Continue standing to the right on asphalt, pass Allerod and, still keeping to the right, reach Godioz where you begin a descent to the left until you reach an old hydroelectric power station. Here turn left onto the track that leads us, on the orographic left of the Torrent Artanavaz, to the bridge over the regional road to Allein. Here you follow the regional road toward Aosta, then to follow the state road to the first fork (before the cemetery of Gignod), which you take to the right along a communal road for about a hundred meters, then left and then right again to reach the hamlet of Chez Percher di Gignod. Here, going straight on, go along the Ru Bourgeois, passing through Meylan and Entrebin, reaching which you follow the outward route to reach the starting point.

NOTES:

1. the trip was carried out both by mtb and e-mtb. In the latter case, at the end of the ride the battery had 25% of 750 kWh remaining;

2. toponomy is that of "THE EXCURSIONIST publisher".